How do I create an INT test referral that includes a clinicalTerm (A005)?

e-Referral Service (e-RS) e-Referral Service FHIR API
1

Hi all,

I am a service provider dev working in the INT environment. When I retrieve a referral via A005 (Retrieve Referral Request), I want the serviceSearchCriteria Parameters resource to include a clinicalTerm parameter (SNOMED CT coded), so I can render it in our triage UI.

The referrals I have created so far only ever contain priority, specialty, clinicType, postcode, ageAndGenderAppropriate, and commissioningProvisioning – never clinicalTerm. I dont see an area in the referral creation process where I can specify the Clinical Term.

What exactly must I do when creating the referral in the e-RS INT to embed a clinicalTerm (SNOMED CT)? Does the service have to be found via a “search by condition / clinical term” path rather than by specialty/clinic type?

Environment: INT. API: A005 (Retrieve Referral Request), STU3.

Thanks in advance.

2

Hi Daniel,

Thanks for your query.

The clincalTerm parameter in the serviceSearchCriteria isn’t something you add to the referral directly, it gets captured automatically from the search criteria used when was created.

If the referrer searches for services using speciality/clinic type (via A010), those are the only parameters stored on the referral, which is why you’re only seeing priority, speciality, clinicType, etc. in A005.

To get clincalTerm included, the referral needs to be created from a service search that used a clinical term. In the A010 request body, the searchCriteria resource would need to include:

{
“name”: “clincalTerm”,
“valueCoding”: {
“system”: “http://snomed.info/sct (change as required”,
“code”: “(input as required)”
}
}

So yes, the service needs to be found via a “search by condition/clinical term” path rather than by specialty/clinic type. The target service in INT also needs to have that SNOMED concept configured in its supported concepts for it to show up in the results.

Once a referral is created from that search, A005 will return the clincalTerm in the serviceSearchCriteria automatically.

Hope that helps,

George

3

Hi George, thanks for the info.

You mention that the service needs to be found via a “search by condition/clinical term” path rather than by specialty/clinic type.

The main problem is when I’m in the INT environment and creating a referral I don’t see any place to specify search by condition/clinical term, I can only see criteria for specialty/clinic type?

4

Does anyone have an idea about my last question ?

5

Hi Daniel,

Sorry for the delay in us coming back to you.

The reason you don’t see a “search by condition/clinical term” field in the INT Professional UI is that the standard service search journey only exposes specialty/clinic type criteria, and clinical term searching isn’t surfaced in that UI flow.

You could try this instead:

  • Use the A010 API directly with searchCriteria that includes clinicalTerm (as SNOMED coding). - Then create your referral from that search via A011. When you retrieve it with A005, the serviceSearchCriteria should include the clinicalTerm you searched with.
  • Just make sure the target INT service is configured with that SNOMED concept first, or A010 won’t return it.
6

Thanks Thomas that’s clear now, just needed a referral example that a clinical term attached.